'Three Identical Strangers' on CNN- a story of triplets torn apart for scientific experiment

[Vash01]

Did anyone see the documentary 'Three identical strangers' on CNN?
https://www.cnn.com/shows/three-identical-strangers-cnn-film

This happened in the 1950s and 1960s

I found it very disturbing that the three boys (identical triplet) as well as some twins were sent to separate families to experiment on them- Nature vs Nurture. The results of the experiment were never published.

It was a miracle that the boys found each other, after being separated in 1961, when they were just six months old. They were robbed of their time together as siblings. I feel it is morally wrong to experiment on humans. From what I heard, several twins were separated for the study. The results of the study were never published and some findings can be opened only after 2066.

 

[Skate Talker]

I saw a documentary about these experiments last week. It does talk about the triplets but focuses more on a number of twins, particularily 2 sets who found each other.

2 brothers were actually successful in getting their case studies released to them. 1 woman had successfully found her twin but the relationship was rocky from the start and they no longer speak. The one was bitter with the other over having been in the less well off family. The documentary went into how a woman who had worked at the orphanage that was "supplying" the twins to the study spilled the beans when she was terminally ill with cancer. The documentary also included a couple of meetings between twins/parents and case study workers. The two main "culprits" are no longer alive. One was the woman who ran the respected Jewish adoption agency and believed in splitting up twins and the other was the doctor who ran the studies.

 

[VGThuy]

I think these sort of experiments really changed the way we now do research on human subjects. I was a research assistant for one of my law professors who was doing a book on how the granting of legal status of same-sex unions have changed their partnerships. Before I could start, I was forced to take a class and take a test on the ethics of research on human subjects.

Looking at how some past experiments were conducted on human subjects, it's simply amazing and appalling what was allowed back then.

 

[judiz]

It’s amazing how much alike the men were even thought they were raised separately. They all smoked the same
brand of cigarettes, they all liked the same foods, they all had similar interests and habits. They even moved in unison.

 

[Kasey]

I had read about the study, as well as other cases of twin separation. When you consider other things, like the Tuskegee airmen, Henrietta Lacks and the Broadmoor experiments, those are things that have instituted the informed consent for human studies now. For my Master's project studying the impact of "sleep protocols" on decreasing the incidence of delirium in ICU patients, I had to get informed consent, even though no invasive procedures were being done.

 

[Vash01]

I saw a documentary about these experiments last week. It does talk about the triplets but focuses more on a number of twins, particularily 2 sets who found each other.

2 brothers were actually successful in getting their case studies released to them. 1 woman had successfully found her twin but the relationship was rocky from the start and they no longer speak. The one was bitter with the other over having been in the less well off family. The documentary went into how a woman who had worked at the orphanage that was "supplying" the twins to the study spilled the beans when she was terminally ill with cancer. The documentary also included a couple of meetings between twins/parents and case study workers. The two main "culprits" are no longer alive. One was the woman who ran the respected Jewish adoption agency and believed in splitting up twins and the other was the doctor who ran the studies.

The Triplet’s documentary mentioned that the three young men did not grow up together, so they missed out on how to adjust to one another, the way siblings in a family do. They met as adults (19 when they met) and they had difficulty getting along because they really were strangers to one another. One of them suffered from depression and he ended up killing himself. It is hard to say if this had anything to do with his early childhood, separation from his biological family, etc.

One thing is not clear to me. How did the parents agree to giving away their triplets or their twins? The documentary said that it is hard to find a family that would take in all three babies, so they had to split them up (according to the adoption agency, which was Jewish in this case also). How did the parents agree to splitting them up? These babies were six months old, they shared a crib. When one or two went missing, how did the remaining baby or babies feel? Babies do have minds and feelings and sadly they cannot tell others what they are going through. This is so cruel. The Nazis experimented on humans. This should not have happened in a civilized society in the 1950s and 1960s. By then everyone knew what the Nazis had done.

 

[skategal]

I'm guessing that the bio parents didn't agree at all to split them up and knew nothing about it.

Adoptions were all closed at the time and the bio parents were told little to nothing about where their children were going.

At the time that this happened, supposedly, the belief among adoption agencies was that twins would be better off being separated. How much of that belief was due to genuine concern for the children or due to the ability to charge a double fee is anyone's guess.

Supposedly, the experiments happened because the twins were going to be separated and not the other way around. But who even knows for sure?

It is terrible in any case and horrific that it happened.

 

[skatesindreams]

The first book I read about separated/re-united twins/siblings was during the late 1960's, when the secrecy about adoption began to lift.

I believe it to be much more common than many people realize.
Once a month or so; another case makes news.
Social media; and other avenues, make locating "lost" family much simpler than it was in times past.

Consequences vary wildly, according to the circumstances involved.

 

[Jenny]

Some may be interested in the related issue of how at least one fertility clinic was upping the odds of success - by subbing in the sperm donations of healthy medical students without telling the couples involved, and now today's DNA tasting is uncovering their secrets - https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/15/books/review/dani-shapiro-inheritance.html

 

[VGThuy]

Some may be interested in the related issue of how at least one fertility clinic was upping the odds of success - by subbing in the sperm donations of healthy medical students without telling the couples involved, and now today's DNA tasting is uncovering their secrets - https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/15/books/review/dani-shapiro-inheritance.html

WOW!

 

[AxelAnnie]

It may have been difficult in the 1950's to find families that would take multiples. Think of the economic impact on a family. And these were the days when mom was home and dad worked, they lived in a modest post war home.

 

[Sparks]

The adoption agency in the documentary didn't give the adoptive parents the choice.

 

[oleada]

It was also specifically mentioned that one of the parents said that he would have taken all three if given the choice.

I watched it with my husband (an identical twin) and my FIL. It was really good, and very sad.

 

[judiz]

One of them suffered from depression and he ended up killing himself. It is hard to say if this had anything to do with his early childhood, separation from his biological family, etc.

One thing is not clear to me. How did the parents agree to giving away their triplets or their twins? The documentary said that it is hard to find a family that would take in all three babies, so they had to split them up (according to the adoption agency, which was Jewish in this case also). How did the parents agree to splitting them up? .

In this case, the biological mother was a high school girl who got pregnant on prom night. Most likely she was never told the babies would be separated, the feelings of a unwed pregnant 19 year old would not be considered at that time. The adoptive parents were never informed, the agency thinking the odds of the siblings meeting was not possible.

I had also read that all three boys had received medical care as teens for psychiatric behavior and all three use to rock in their crib and bang their heads on the rails.

 

[Vash01]

IIRC the CNN documentary indicated that the parents didn’t know that the twins in the studies (triplets in this ?) would be separated. This documentary is on my Netflix list. I may rent it because I really liked it.

 

[mjb52]

Does anyone know what the reasoning was behind the idea that it was better for twins to be separated? It is so unfathomable to me - I could at least comprehend if it was simply not possible to place them together, but what possible rationale could there be for thinking they were better off apart as some kind of preferred situation?

 

[Sparks]

They were separated for research purposes.

 

[canbelto]

Does anyone know what the reasoning was behind the idea that it was better for twins to be separated? It is so unfathomable to me - I could at least comprehend if it was simply not possible to place them together, but what possible rationale could there be for thinking they were better off apart as some kind of preferred situation?

I think the idea back then was that triplets would be overwhelming for any parents, especially adoptive parents who tend to be older. Also back then adoption was a bit of a stigma and three triplets living together are definitely adopted.

This isn't really related but I had a childhood friend who was adopted and she said her adoption agency was determined to find a redheaded father or mother because she's a ginger. They screened until they found her adoptive parents, both of whom happen to have red hair. It was considered that important that the children could "pass" as biological children.

 

[Sparks]

Unseen study footage from 'Three Identical Strangers' | CNN

Unseen footage of the triplets featured in "Three Identical Strangers" was under seal at Yale University. Filmmakers recently gained access to that footage in a request for the secret adoption study records. Watch the CNN film "Three Identical Strangers" at 9 p.m. ET Sunday.

www.cnn.com

Like I said, research.

 

[once_upon]

I had read about the study, as well as other cases of twin separation. When you consider other things, like the Tuskegee airmen, Henrietta Lacks and the Broadmoor experiments, those are things that have instituted the informed consent for human studies now. For my Master's project studying the impact of "sleep protocols" on decreasing the incidence of delirium in ICU patients, I had to get informed consent, even though no invasive procedures were being done.

For my masters research project the IRB had to approve it, even though the participants were unknown to us and involved them identifing from fictional case studies if there was cause to report child abuse by a school nurse (emotional, physical and medical abuse case scenarios). I can't imagine being part of a research team who deliberately separated multiples at birth.

 

[VGThuy]

When I started out as a research assistant in law school, I had to take the IRB ethics test on conducting research on human subjects because of experiments like that and many others.

 

[BaileyCatts]

Its been a while since I watched it, but do I remember correctly that the results they claimed to have gathered are sealed and will not be released to anyone until 2065, which likely means all the kids this happened to will be dead by then? The producers tried to get materials and they were denied access ... or something like that?

 

[LeafOnTheWind]

Its been a while since I watched it, but do I remember correctly that the results they claimed to have gathered are sealed and will not be released to anyone until 2065, which likely means all the kids this happened to will be dead by then? The producers tried to get materials and they were denied access ... or something like that?

Yes. Although the triplets involved were allowed to review some of the documentation after the documentary was made. I think the publicity shamed the institutions to at least let the subjects of the experiment have some closure on why everything happened and what it was for.

 

[Vagabond]

I had read about the study, as well as other cases of twin separation. When you consider other things, like the Tuskegee airmen, Henrietta Lacks and the Broadmoor experiments, those are things that have instituted the informed consent for human studies now.

The Tuskegee Airmen were not involved in the Tuskegee syphilis experiment.